Meet the First Fish to Be Taken Off the Endangered Species List

I don’t know how it is where you fish, but here in Southern California, I often hear the older salties talking about “the good old days.” You know what I mean: “Remember when we used to catch [insert fish name] here and you could literally catch one on every cast?” These days it seems anglers are constantly faced with new areas closed off to fishing, shortened fishing seasons, and more restrictive fishing regulations.

So anytime there’s a story about a rebound in the health of a fishery, it’s definitely news to be celebrated! One such species is the Oregon chub, a small baitfish critical to the ecosystem it lives in, which may be the first species to be de-listed as endangered.

U.S. officials propose taking the Oregon chub off the list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, which would make it the first fish de-listed due to recovery.

The proposal Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the culmination of a 20-year partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers and private landowners.

“For two decades, this extraordinary partnership that includes federal and state agencies, landowners and others stakeholders has served as a model of how we can use the Endangered Species Act as a tool to bring a species back from the brink of extinction,” Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said. “The success we have had with the Oregon chub reinforces that, working together, we can recover species that currently are threatened or endangered.”

Joe is an avid saltwater angler. He grew up in Washington State on the south end of Puget Sound where he first started fishing as a boy catching perch, flounder, rockfish, and occasionally salmon. Today, Joe lives in Southern California where he fishes off beaches and jetties, kayaks, and sportfishing boats. Joe writes about his saltwater adventures in the SoCal Salty blog, and for Western Outdoor News.